With the holiday season, peppermint is making its way onto scene as the main ingredient in confectionary and cosmetics. Peppermint is a hybrid of spearmint and watermint. The prefix “pepper” suggests a connection with Piper nigrum, black pepper, but the two are unrelated, belonging to different divisions of Kingdom Plantae. Peppermint has many medicinal properties, as it contains menthol, which has anesthetic and soothing properties that trigger the TRPM8 cellular receptors responsible for sensitivity to cold. In addition to the cool soothing sensation, menthol also relaxes muscles and has been proven to have many antiviral properties. Next time you aren’t feeling well, look to peppermint – the age-old cure-all.